Software and Information Industry Calls for Congressional Re

[2ndamendsis]

Software and Information Industry Calls for Congressional Reform of High-skilled Immigration and Visa Processes

Apr 4 12:25 PM US/Eastern



WASHINGTON, April 4 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA) today called for congressional reform of the visa process after the announcement by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services that it has reached its cap on H-1B visas for the 2008 fiscal year.

"The continued leadership of the U.S. technology industry is dependent on the ability of American companies to hire highly educated, highly skilled workers," said Ken Wach, SIIA President. "The USCIS announcement that it met the cap on H-1B visa petitions on the first day of eligibility is further evidence that the current visa allotment system is broken. If Congress does not take action to reform the system, the global competitiveness of many American companies will be threatened."

American companies, including many SIIA members, use H-1B visas to employ foreign workers in occupations that require technical expertise in specialized fields such as computer programmers, scientists or engineers. The historic announcement by USCIS that the cap for H-1B visa petitions was reached on the first day of eligibility means that many 2007 foreign graduates of American universities will eventually be precluded from pursuing significant employment within the U.S. for a period of 18 months.

"Innovation and competition within the American technology industry is a leading driver of U.S. economic growth," said David LeDuc, SIIA Director of Public Policy. "However, demand for workers with the right technical skills and knowledge has grown at a rate greater than the U.S. workforce can meet. While it is critical that we remain focused on training American workers to meet the industry needs of the 21st Century, companies must be able to meet their immediate needs by hiring the most highly skilled professionals the world has to offer."

About SIIA

SIIA is the principal trade association for the software and digital content industry. SIIA provides global services in government relations, business development, corporate education and intellectual property protection to more than 800 leading software and information companies. For more information, visit http://www.siia.net.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id ... _article=1

[SOSADFORUS]

These guys are so full of crap its got to be coming out their ears!!

[2ndamendsis]

2007 foreign graduates of American universities

[SOSADFORUS]

2007 foreign graduates of American universities

Well I guess they will just have to go home to their country of orgin, place they were born and grew up in, remember that place foreign students. There must be some American citizens graduating in May from some of the thousands of colleges in our country

[lsmith1338]

These companies will not be happy until they put all of the middle class workers out of jobs too. We cannot possible increase the number of visas as many american citizens in these industries are out of work now. They just do not want to pay a decent wage and are undermining the american workers by bringing in skilled workers for much lower wages.

[Dagmar]

What a load of crap, right after this i'm sure they will announce how there are NO US college students taking engineering or majoring in computer science.
Why the hell would they if they know they aren't going to be hired by American companies like Microcrap? It's not that we don't have enough American workers, it's that American companies greed doesn't want to pay what the jobs are actually worth. If they bring in foreign workers, they pay them less, they aren't supposed to but they do.
Also these foreign workers are getting a great deal right they can come here not be citizens work at good paying jobs (for them). But if they question the company on their hiring practices, ask for more pay they are under threat of having their H1-B visa revoked.